Dillon Dube, Calvin Thurkauf and Tomas Soustal were all back in the Â鶹AV Rockets' lineup on Friday night.
It wasn't enough as the hometown Kamloops Blazers downed the Rockets 3-1 at the Sandman centre, kicking off a weekend home-and-home set between the B.C. Division rivals.
, who played for Canada just 24 hours earlier in the gold medal game at the world junior hockey championship in Montreal, scored the Rockets lone goal on a second-period power play.
Thurkauf (Switzerland) and Soustal (Czech Republic) also played their first games with Â鶹AV in almost a month after competing at the world junior championship.
Dylan Ferguson stopped 30 shots for the Blazers, who outshot Michael Herringer and the Rockets 36-31.
With the win, Kamloops (25-15-1-0) pulls three points ahead of the Rockets (23-15-1-0) who lost their fourth straight game.
for the Rockets who acquired high-scoring forward Reid Gardiner from the Prince Albert Raiders.
Gardiner will be in the lineup Saturday when the Rockets host the Blazers, 7:05 p.m. at Prospera Place.
